Take last week at Daytona. Kurt Busch entered that race 14th and Tony Stewart was 16th in the standings.

But after Joey Logano wrecked thanks to a flat tire and Kasey Kahne and Jeff Gordon also were collected in accidents, Busch and Stewart vaulted—Busch by five spots to ninth and Stewart up six to 10th.

Logano tumbled to 15th.

Those types of moves don’t typically happen at the midway point in the season but do show how tight the battle is to get into the Chase.

Just 19 points separate 16th-place Ryan Newman and ninth-place Busch. Not a full race worth of 48 points separates ninth from 21st.

The Camping World RV Sales 301 on Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway marks the 19th race of the Sprint Cup Series season. After 26 races, the top-10 drivers earn automatic berths and two wild-card spots are available to drivers 11th-20th with the most wins, with ties broken by points.

“To be in the top-10 is great,” said Busch, the 2004 Cup champion in his first year with the single-car Furniture Row Racing organization. “It’s a nice feather in the cap, but there is still a long way to go.

“You can lose points real easily, but it’s tough to gain the points. So basically from eighth to 18th everybody fits in one shoe box right now.”

Currently on the outside looking in on a Chase berth are past champions Brad Keselowski and Jeff Gordon while Busch and Stewart are on the bubble.

“We all have a piece inside of us that refuses to lose, that wants to find a way to win with the 20th-place car but quite honestly that is usually when you wreck or do those things you talk about,” said Keselowski, who is on the pole Sunday and is in 13th place, 11 points outside of 10th.

“It is a fine line to balance as drivers that really gets no notoriety but quite honestly is one of the hardest things you do unless you have a dominant car week in and week out like some guys do.”

For those without wins, they are not in position to take a risk with pit strategy.

“We aren’t in the position to go for those big moves like that to win a race that way,” Logano said. “We have to win them the other way, actually being the fastest car.

“We are working on making our cars faster and consistently finishing in the top-five or top-10 and get the points back that we lost last week.”

The races before the Chase include a 1-mile track today in New Hampshire, then 2.5-mile tracks at Indianapolis and Pocono and a road course at Watkins Glen. Two of the races over the last four regular-season weeks include intermediate tracks at Michigan and Atlanta and then short tracks Bristol and the regular-season finale at Richmond.

“It’s going to come down to a situation where you want to control your own destiny,” Busch said. “That is you want to go into Richmond and have a target, 20th or better. If we can do that and go the next seven weeks and have good runs—you don’t have to win but you have to stay away from those bad finishes.

“If you do just nice, consistent runs, then you control your own destiny going to Richmond.”